Blogito ergo sum! Actually, as N.T. Wright averred, "'Amor, ergo sum:' I am loved, therefore I am." Among other things, I am a Roman Catholic deacon. This is a public cyberspace in which I seek to foster Christian discipleship in the late modern milieu in the diakonia of koinonia and in the recognition that "the Eucharist is the only place of resistance to annihilation of the human subject."

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Sunday, September 13, 2009

The resurrection is not one fact in the world, along with all the other facts

Today is the Lord's day, Dies Domini. It is the day that we commemorate, remember, and celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact of Christ's resurrection remains for us a fact, along with the other facts in the world, both incredible and mundane, if we do not encounter Him. This is true even if we believe this truth, this event that happened in time and space. Objectively, Christ's resurrection transformed the cosmos. According to God's plan, for those made in the divine image and likeness, we have to allow ourselves to be transformed, something that happens by the power of the Spirit, who is nothing other than Christ's resurrection presence among us.

We all know that Gospel more or less means "good news". The good news is that God loves you and wants you to be happy, to be fulfilled, to be satisfied, to understand and to attain the only end for which you are made. We must not understand this in a trivial, frivolous, or sentimental way. The way to happiness and fulfillment is a struggle, an agon. An agon creates agony, and agony, in turn, passion. When we encounter the eternal we are awestruck. In those moments we recognize our nothingness, how infinitely far we are from what we desire, we wonder, How do I get from my nothingness to my fulfillment?

It is no accident that St. Paul describes the world's becoming (you being a part of the world) in his letter to the Romans as a woman in throes of labor: "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience" (Rom. 8:22-25 ESV).

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About Me

I am husband and Dad to six lovely children. I am also a Roman Catholic deacon of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. I married in 1993, became a Dad for the first time in 1994 and most recently in 2011 (quite a spread). I was was ordained in 2004. After serving for 11 years at The Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, I am now assigned to St Olaf's Parish in Bountiful, Utah. I am a graduate of the University of Utah and the Institute in Pastoral Ministry at St. Mary's University of Minnesota.

Madeleine Delbrêl

"We fashion the immortal being we are through our choices. Through our choices we bring the man in us to the fullness of life or to the worst of human suffering. At the hour of his death each human being has become either a person who will live with God forever, or who will be without God forever" Madeleine Delbrêl

St. Paul

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:1-2)